Hello Readers, my name is Wendy. I am a happily married mother of two young ladies. Together with my husband we are living an abundant life through growing some of our own vegetables and fruit, cooking and baking everything from scratch and being mindful of what we use and buy.
God has blessed us abundantly. We try to be good stewards of those blessings.

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Monday, 12 October 2015

What's In My Freezer.

I guess the title of this post should read "What's In My Freezers " as I have three freezers. No I don't collect freezers as a hobby but I do love having the space to freeze whatever I want. I have a 660 litre side by side fridge / freezer I think about 240 litres of it is freezer space. I have a 120 litre freezer and a 180 litre freezer ( our latest addition to the freezer family ).

For ten years I fed my young family out of the 120 litre freezer and Darren's old fridge that had a small freezer compartment inside. Space back then was at a premium and boy, did I stack those freezers well. Not one box of convenience food could fit in those freezers ( not that we could afford it back then ). Bread, rolls and icecubes went into the little freezer compartment in the fridge and mince, chicken and a few meals went into the 120 litre freezer.

When we outgrew Darren's old fridge we upgraded to the 660 litre side by side. About 2 1/2 years ago we were given another freezer but unfortunately it only lasted two years. So a few months ago I bought the 180 litre freezer.

As you know we have a vegetable garden and fruit trees. The freezers come in handy for storing excess garden produce. This saves us money as quite often we can eat our produce from the freezer when it's out of season and costs a fortune at the supermarket.

I think that the entire contents of our freezers. Of course we don't have everything stocked at the same time, but we do try to keep as much a possible.

In a few weeks I'll talk about the best way to store food in the freezer

This is the freezer part of my side by side fridge. That's pita bread on the top shelf bought at a market. Baking is on the next shelf with the lemon ice cubes and sweetened condensed milk. Crumpets are on the third shelf with cooked rice stored in the white container. Veggies are on the next shelf. .

Then there is the bread shelf and below that are two slide out drawers with frozen fruit and biscuit dough

The 120 litre 23 year old freezer and our new 180 litre freezer. They hold the meat, soups, garden produce and freezer meals

Wow Wendy, what a great post, makes me want to organise my freezers abit better.I sometimes have problems with freezer burn or the taste of say muffins, taste different once thawed out. Also, when i thaw out pumpkin soup its very watery. Interested to hear about you freezing Zucchinis. Can't wait for your next post on storing food. Maureen

Dear Wendy, What an asset to have your freezers full and well organised. Also to be able to find room when you get a great special like legs of lamb, bread for free and so on. I have only once lost food due to power blackout, several years ago we lost power ona heatwave for two days. I had a small freezer then. However I put in a claim to the electricity company and they paid me! with big freezers like yours and when they are full they would spray solid for a couple of days with no power I think. No door opening as you say. Anyway as you say that is rare. Over Christmas I try to reduce what's in ours so I can fit in turkeys I find on special and hams, after New Year. This is a highlight! I get as many as I can fit and one to cook straight away. When my freezer is full I can add to Mums freezer one street away. This is so handy! If I have gaps I try to fill them with bottles of water. If I need the space I let them defrost and water the garden with them. With love, Annabel.sxx

Brilliant, you are so well organised. I currently have two freezers, the biggest is unfortunately a chest freezer which means I have to move things around all the time, (think freezer Tetris) as what I want is ALWAYS at the bottom.

I need to do a checklist of what is in there I think and get it properly organised like yours.

What a great effort you have put into making your freezers work for you. I see you also freeze yoghurt as a starter, I only recently read that you could do this. Once I tidy my freezer I will be freezing some of this bought batch to use as a starter.

Thanks for sharing Wendy. My mum had a very large chest freezer and it was always so difficult to find things and I swore I'd never have one, but one was passed to us and I still have trouble either finding things or keeping it organised. They are supposed to be better to keep things colder so how do you find the upright freezer - or is it a case of keeping it full (either with food or water bottles to fill the spaces). I think they are better to physically get things in and out of but you obviously think they work ok since you've got another one.

Helen I keep mine organized by grouping foods in different colored reusable shopping totes. This has worked excellent for me and now nothing gets lost or shoved to the bottom. I divide the meats, breads, etc into categories and the handles on the bags make it easy to access as well as rearrange items. I no longer fight with my chest freezer! I hope you can find an easy solution as well.

Helen, Cath from Cheapskates has a chest freezer. She uses the recycle colored shopping bags to kep things in order.

I've only ever had upright freezers and never had any problems with keeping things frozen. You are right, it's best to have a reasonably full freezer at all times.

If in the future you need to buy a new freezer, consider how old you are, how long you think the freezer will last ( say 10 - 15 years ) and work out if an upright might be easier to use if by then you are getting on in age. In other words, don't buy a chest freezer when you are in your 60's, 70's, 80's etc.

May I ask about the cost of running them? We normally have an approx $400 / quarter electricity bill. More in Summer as it can get very hot here in Penrith. Having another appliance would up it even more.

We didn't notice a change in our bil when we added the third feezer recently. The saving you make from having the extra freezer room far outweighs the cost of running a freezer. Think of all the specials you could stock up on .

We are very energy wise so we use the two light rule, standby lights off, limited tech gadgets etc.

Vicky, if your power is $400 you may have a power leak or older fridge and freezer which aren't as power efficient. You should not need to pay that . I used to live out west now live in city of Sydney and bill is not More than $150. Make sure you turn everything off as it just drains power. Even hot water until 1 hour before you need it. I've found this also works well. Two sweaters not put the heater on, and in summer we never had a fan just go somewhere cool instead. I went to university in Penrith and know the heat but my mother never let us put heat or fan on we just had cold wash cloths on face and neck in summer at bedtime, used the pool for free or river and winter was two or 3 sweaters and a Spencer . Don't laugh can save $$$ and I've three sisters too.

Frugal In Norfolk put a link today to your Dry Crumble recipe from a few months ago which can be stored in a cupboard, such a good idea as I usually have some stored in the freezer but it's taken up precious space and I don't have quite as many freezers as you! :-)